1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to adapter panels, electronic equipment, and cable connector identification systems, and particularly to an adapter panel where a cable with a connector having an IC device is inserted and removed, electronic equipment having the adapter panel, and a cable connector identification system identifying the connector of the cable.
2. Description of Related Art
Various electrical equipment input or output information by a cable. For example, an oscilloscope has a connector jack to connect a removable cable integral with a connector, thereby inputting waveform information.
If such a conventional oscilloscope measures the waveform with a relatively high frequency wave, the measurement waveform fluctuates due to fluctuation in the impedance of a probe, which may result in inaccurate measurement. Further, the electrical equipment where a plurality of plugs are inserted or removed such as a telephone switching device is subject to insertion mistake.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-229215 (Nakagawa et. al.) describes a cable connector identification system to overcome the above problems. This cable connector identification system attaches a wireless IC tag to a connector of a cable that is connected to electrical equipment. This cable connector identification system allows correction of fluctuation in the measurement waveform of an oscilloscope and detection whether a correct cable is inserted or not by reading various information stored in the wireless IC tag.
Nakagawa et. al. teaches a case of applying this cable connector identification system to a circuit switching device. In this case, an optical cable is inserted to an adapter panel and the adapter panel is mounted to the circuit switching device. This adapter panel is described below with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14. FIG. 13 is a diagrammatic perspective view showing a structural example of the adapter panel. The adapter panel 900 in FIG. 13 has an adapter 901, an attachment 902, a connector housing 903, a Coil-on-Chip Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) 904, and a reader/writer (R/W) antenna 905.
The adapter panel 900, the adapter 901, the attachment 902, and the connector housing 903 respectively correspond to the optical cable socket base 410, the relay socket 411, the relay socket attachment 413, and the optical cable connector 10 in the above related art.
As illustrated in FIG. 13, a plurality of adapters 901 are arranged on the adapter panel 900, and the connector housing 903 is inserted to each adapter 901. The adapters 901 are fixed to the attachment 902. The connector housing 903 is mounted to the adapter panel 900 by the attachment 902. Further, the Coil-on-Chip RFID 904 is attached to placed in the connector housing 903. The R/W antenna 905 is placed in the adapter 901 to wirelessly communicates with the Coil-on-Chip RFID 904.
FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of the connection structure of an optical cable. This cross-sectional view illustrates the connector housing 903 in the operating side being inserted to the adapter 901.
As shown in FIG. 14, the adapter 901 is mounted to the adapter panel 900 as penetrating between the outside (operating side) and the inside (equipment side) of a case. The connector housings 903 and 906 are inserted to the adapter 901 from the operating side and the equipment side, respectively, thereby allowing optical communication between both optical cables in the operating and equipment sides.
The Coil-on-Chip RFID 904 is placed in the lower side part of the connector housing 903 in the operating side. The R/W antenna 905 is embedded in the lower side part of the adapter 901 projecting from the equipment. The Coil-on-Chip RFID 904 is placed in the position to face the R/W antenna 905 when the connector housing 903 is inserted to the adapter 901. In this position, the R/W antenna 905 wirelessly communicates with the Coil-on-Chip RFID 904. The R/W antenna 905 is connected to a reader/writer (R/W) circuit, not shown, to output the data input from the Coil-on-Chip RFID 904 to the R/W circuit.
The R/W circuit is placed inside the equipment. On the other hand, the R/W antenna 905 is placed in the adapter 901 which projects from the circuit switching device. Thus, it is necessary to place the R/W circuit in the equipment side that is the inner than the adapter panel 900 and draw a connection line between the R/W antenna 905 and the R/W circuit from the inside of the adapter panel 900 to the outside thereof. In this case, a printed circuit board is produced by using a substrate in which a place to form the R/W antenna 905 projects. The printed circuit board with such a special shape is difficult to form and causes low yield.
Further, in this printed circuit board, the R/W circuit is placed inside the equipment, and the R/W antenna 905 is mounted to the adapter panel 900 as drawn to the outside of the adapter panel 900. Thus, it is required to make a slit in the attachment 902 to allow the R/W antenna 905 to pass through. Since the adapter panel 900 is assembled by inserting the R/W antenna 905 to the slit of the attachment 902, it impedes efficient assembly of the adapter panel 900.
As described above, a conventional adapter panel is not easy to manufacture and assemble, which results in high manufacturing costs.